Florence North, 91

Florence North passed away on New Year s Eve, Jan. 31, 2009, at St. Peter s Hospital in Helena. She was born on May 13, 1918, near Arlington, Ohio, the second child of Roy and Ada Riegle. She graduated from Arlington High School, where she was a four-year letterman in basketball. She was also the shortstop on the town girls softball team. Following graduation, she went into nurse training at Robinwood Hospital in Toledo, Ohio. She graduated as a registered nurse in 1940 and began working at the hospital in Findlay, Ohio. On Jan. 20, 1944, she married Fred North and they resided in Orlando, Fla. She worked in the hospital there and Fred was stationed at the Kissimmee Army Airfield, where he served as a P-47 mechanic. Fred was transferred to San Antonio, Texas, and Florence worked in the hospital there. Following the war, they moved to Bigfork, where she and Fred operated the North family farm, which now is the Lake Hills Addition, the Lake Hills Shopping Center, and Peaceful Acres. In May of 1948, they adopted their son, John, from Shodair Children s Hospital. Fred and Florence sold the farm in 1961, and Florence opened the North Star Gift Shop north of Bigfork. Florence was active in the Bigfork Community Methodist Church, where she served as superintendent of the Sunday school, the Bigfork PTA, and the Lakeview Rebekah Lodge. In 1966, she and Fred purchased a small farm south of Columbia Falls, which they operated for two years. Upon John s graduation from Bigfork High School in 1966, Florence returned to nursing, working first in the Lutheran home in Kalispell, and then as the director of nursing at the Bigfork Convalescent Center. In 1968, she and Fred returned to Bigfork, where they built a house on the former family farm, overlooking the farmhouse that Fred s father built in 1892, and on a lot on which Fred s grandfather, John North, was buried. Florence retired in about 1978 because of a hernia that kept her from assisting residents. Fred passed away in 1998 and, in 2001, Florence moved to Helena, where she resided first at the Waterford and then at the Rocky Mountain Care Center. She was preceded in death by her father and mother; her husband; a sister, Ruth; and nieces, Elaine and Diane. She is survived by her sister, Marna Hartman, of Arlington; nieces, Marlene Garber of Pinkerington, Ohio, and Karen Hartman of Delphos, Ohio; nephews, Dan Doll of Sidney, Ohio, and Bob and Bill Hartman, of Arlington; and her son and daughter in-law, John and Dawn North, of Helena. She also leaves behind her granddog, Alder. A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date.